After that myself, Alan and Steve decided it was insufficient and decided to do a whale watch trip as well.

At 2pm we boarded our boat in brilliant sunshine with our guide, Gary. Gary was of first nation heritage and spoke with the 'authentic' Canadian accent, 'eh'. He had a tattoo 'Love' on his knuckles and I believe he was quite serious about it if the multiple love bites on his neck were any indication.

He didn't say much did Gary but he did show us the whales and more. First stop - Orcas. He had found a small transient pod of about six killers in the morning and we had a hell ride bouncing over waves heading out to ocean to see them. We saw large dorsal fins and one whale gave nearly a full breach. Next - Grey whales - again blows, breaches and tail flukes. Next? Steller's Sea Lions and, the bird of the day, Tufted Puffins. In between times we got great views of sea otters. It was particularly a buzz to see these animals well [head and shoulders out and their version of back stroke] as the original populations off Vancouver Island had become extinct earlier last century. The animals we saw were descended from introduced animals from Alaska.

Our day ended with seafood Marinara made from local fish and seafood [plus a Molsen].